Free A Colder Kind of Death by Gail Bowen Page B

for the common man?” I said.
    “Man and woman, Jo. I’m surprised at you. And the answer is I don’t have to revere them any more. I’m out of politics.”
    “Right,” I said.
    Howard looked weary. “Have you got coffee or something?”
    “We can go to the Faculty Club,” I said. Then, remembering the ice in the greetings I’d gotten on my way back from class, I said, “On second thought, maybe I’d better make us a pot here.”
    I made the coffee and plugged it in. “Howard, before we talk, let me call Taylor’s school. I want to make sure someone’s keeping an eye on how she’s dealing with all this.”
    After I talked to Taylor’s principal, I felt better. Taylor was the fourth of my children to go to Lakeview School, and over the years Ian MacDonald and I had come to know each other. He knew that none of the Kilbourns would ever be a Rhodes Scholar, but he also knew that my kids were decent enough, and that he could count on me when he needed an extra driver for a field trip. He said he’d talk to Taylor’s teacher, then he cleared his throat and told me he knew Iwasn’t a murderer and he would make sure that other people knew that, too.
    I’d often thought Ian MacDonald was a bit of a taskmaster with the kids, but at the moment he was a hero, and my eyes filled with tears. The tissue box in my desk drawer was empty. All I could find in my purse was a paper napkin with the Dairy Queen logo. I mopped my eyes on it. “Dammit,” I said, “I’m so tired I feel like I’m going to throw up. Howard, how bad is this?”
    He sipped his coffee. “At the moment it’s not great, Jo. I was down at the police station after you were there. Gave them my statement, then I just kind of nosed around. I go back a long way with some of those guys.”
    “And …?” I said.
    “They’ve got a window for the time of death. You found Maureen Gault’s body at 11:15, and the woman who works in the hotel smoke shop remembers seeing Maureen just before 11:00. She was just closing the till when Maureen came in to buy a package of LifeSavers. She said they were for her son.”
    For the first time since Maureen died, I felt a pang. “I’d forgotten about him,” I said.
    “You had a few things on your mind,” Howard said drily. “You still do, Jo. The cops are still checking people’s stories. Logically enough, I guess, they’re starting with the head table. There are only two of us who haven’t got even a sniff of an alibi. I’m one of them and you’re the other.”
    “We should have gotten together,” I said, “told the cops that we spent the hour in Blessed Sacrament praying for the justice system.”
    He didn’t laugh. “I wish we had. Gary’s okay. He went over to Tess Malone’s for a nightcap. Jane and Sylvie ended up at Tess’s too.”
    “Talk about strange bedfellows,” I said.
    Howard shrugged. “Apparently, Sylvie and Tess are tight as ticks. Have been for years. Anyway, the four of them were together until midnight. Craig and Manda went straight home. Their neighbour was out shovelling snow, and they talked to him at about 10:30. Around 11:00 Manda ordered pizza. It was delivered at 11:29. The pizza place they got it from is one of those ‘if we’re late, it’s free’ operations, so they keep pretty good records. Anyway there are some holes in Craig and Manda’s story, but it’s better than …”
    “What I have,” I said. “Howard, I don’t understand this. I saw a hundred people when I was looking for Hilda. Doesn’t anybody remember seeing me?”
    “Lots of people remember seeing you, but nobody is willing to swear it was between 11:00 and 11:15. Jo, that’s only fifteen minutes. Most people at the dinner had had a couple of drinks by then and, you know how it is, time gets kind of fuzzy.” He looked as tired as I felt. “Do you want me to hang around for a couple of days? My plane leaves in an hour, but I don’t have to be on it. I can get somebody to cover my